STHM 3, Infected
by ProstheticSouMan
Summary: WOO! i finally finished this one. sorry it took so long. that is why i had made the 1st collection, to tide you all over before finishing this one. IF YOU HAVENT READ ANY BEFORE THIS, READ THE 1STCOLLECTION!


(all characters © of the might Jhonen 'holy roller' Vasquez. Now I know he'd hate me for what I just called him) L

"Infected"

            Pepito walked in and looked around. "Nice little place NNY had."

            Todd looked around as if there was some beauty in the room he had missed. He just saw the same tattered walls.

            "So how are things, Todd?" He sat on the couch.  "When did you get out of the Asylum?"

            He was hesitant on answering, but it had been quite some time since he really talked to anyone, so he gave in to his loneliness. "About seven years or so after I was first put in there." He kept his face down.  "After I was released, I went home.  My mom still didn't recognize me, and my dad said for me to get out of the house and find a job."  He walked to the window. "I never did find a job. No one wanted to hire someone who spent seven years of their life in a goddamn nut house." 

            Woofles barked and ran around Todd's legs.  He stood watching as the dog happily weaved between his feet.  

            "He seems to take a liking to you." Pepito said.  "He rarely seems to like anyone for that matter.  Consider yourself lucky," He got up, and picked up the dog. "He usually attacks." 

            Todd noticed how small the dog was.  "Why would he attack? He's small."

            Pepito shrugged and went back to the couch.  He was about to turn on the TV when his watch beeped. "Ah, crap." He began for the door.  "I'd love to stay longer and chat, but father needs me. Probably going to move the house again. Mother despises helping out while moving the basement.  I'm STILL the only one that's supposed to help with it."

            He opened the door for himself but stood in the doorway.  "It was pleasant speaking with you once more, Todd. Hopefully we shall see each other again sometime." He then walked out and disappeared once stepping onto the street.

            SHMEE was poking his head out from the side of the doorway.  'Well that was fucking nuts.'

            Todd rubbed his chin. "I suppose so."  He closed the door and walked into the kitchen. 

            'You want another sandwich? 'Cuz I was gonna make some more right now.' SHMEE said, climbing onto the counter. 

            "No thank you, I was just going to get a drink, then head back to the basement."

            'Suit yourself.' He said as he dug in the cabinets for ingredients.

            He walked down into the room with the hole in the wall, he was thinking of it ever since he started talking with Pepito.  The hole had brought back that childhood fear of his, something he'd always experience; yet it was almost comforting.

            The hole was no longer there.  He walked towards it, and examined the wall that took its place.  It was smooth, and looked new.  The only part of the house like that.  He poked at it, expecting it to either chip away or to be soft.  It was a hard wall, but nothing fell off.

            He was about to walk back, and possibly take up the offer on a sandwich, when he saw Woofles, in the same room, standing at the stairway bottom.  

            "What are you still doing here, little guy?"

            The dog ran up to Todd and wagged his tail. 

            'This seems a little too familiar.' He thought to himself.  He remembered it clearly: the dog, the ball, walking back home all alone again.  With a tear in his eye, he picked up the dog, and walked back upstairs.  SHMEE was munching away in the living room, watching the Three Stooges.

            "You still got some extra sandwiches?" Todd asked.

            SHMEE motioned with his free hand towards the kitchen, still starring that the TV screen.

            He placed Woofles on the counter and got a sandwich that lay on some napkins on the table.  As he walked by, he couldn't help but notice the dog keep staring at him. 

            After finishing his sandwich and watching a bit of TV, he walked back into the room with the new wall. He investigated it, checking if parts of it would chip off. Nothing would. He stomped on the wall, nothing happened. 'Solid as hell.' He thought to himself.

            "Hell wouldn't be the word to describe it." Said a voice behind him.

            'Good god, what now?' Todd thought to himself. He turned around, expecting to see Pepito back, or someone else from his past.  He saw Woofles, standing at the foot of the stairs again, yet is eyes were different. "What?" he asked.

            "Hell wouldn't be the word to describe what is behind that wall." Spoke Woofles. "It is something much more powerful, much more…"

            Todd raised an eyebrow at the dog. "Since when did YOU start talking?"

            "Oh, I've always been inside you, you've just never knew it." The dog walked up to him. "Until now."

            "Alrighty then," Todd sighed, "then what IS behind that wall?"

            "A force."

            "A force?"

            "Yes, that is what I said, a force."

            "Then what kind of force, Woofles?"

            The dog lay silent. "You wouldn't want to know. But there is something you can do."

            "And what might that be?"

            "Feed it."

            There was a dead silence after that.

            "Feed it?"

            "Yes!"

            "How can I feed a wall?"

            "You'll know how." The dog started walking for the stairs. "You'll LEARN how."

            Woofles walked back up the stairs.  Todd stood there confused. He turned around, and saw that the wall grew a  large crack the center. He heard something from behind the wall shift. The crack grew an inch. Frightened, he ran upstairs.


End file.
